


Depression Walk

by Dumb_Scotticus



Category: Tiny Meat Gang (Band)
Genre: Drug reference, Hospitals, M/M, POV Noel, alt title: Cody Gets Fucking Stabbed, casual suicide mention, found a stab victim AU, i made a joke about cocaine, im just covering my bases here, is this a meetcute?, theyre both sugar bi in this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-02-28 07:11:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18751543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dumb_Scotticus/pseuds/Dumb_Scotticus
Summary: Inspired bythis postby tumblr user elonpleasefuckmywife."Cody gets stabbed one night, Noel has to put his depression walk on hold to take him to the hospital."There’s the patch of clovers he always considers looking through (but never does), there's the weird electrical box that he’s still not certain actually does anything, and there’s the generic-looking white dude with a shitty haircut bleeding out on the street.Pause.





	1. Stab-Bro

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi i've been meaning to post more TMG fic after those first two popped off. I wrote most of this in the waiting room at the optometrist today.

Noel takes depression walks. It’s just something he does. He feels like a ballsack full of shit, and his brain feels like its about to carve its way out of his head with a toothpick and personally write his suicide note for him, so he walks. It doesn’t really matter where. He turns down different streets, sometimes into parks, wherever the fuck his feet happen to take him. Google Maps exists, so he can’t exactly get completely lost, and it’s led him to a lot of cool places. Places he could pose in front of for an album cover, maybe. Earlier that week he found fifty dollars in a gutter.

He turns a corner, vaguely recognizing where he is in the back of his mind, and stops. There’s the patch of clovers he always considers looking through (but never does), there's the weird electrical box that he’s still not certain actually does anything, and there’s the generic-looking white dude with a shitty haircut bleeding out on the street.

Pause.

“Oh,” Noel says aloud without thinking, “Oh fuck.”

"Please." The guy looks up him, eyebrows twisted in pain, clutching at his abdomen. "Help."

Noel moves to kneel next to the guy laying on the sidewalk with a mumbled "You okay?"

Noel gets a shake of the head back, and he's already ordering an Uber to the nearest hospital as the guy curls in on himself in pain. Luckily, the Uber is _very_ close, because fuck if he’s sticking this dude with an ambulance bill on top of the stab wound.

He explains this train of logic to the guy, babbling to calm both his own anxiety and the stabbed man's hazy panic. The dude is probably fading in and out of consciousness from blood loss, but he makes a noise that Noel thinks is an appreciative laugh. Broke Millennials gotta stick together, he guesses. The Uber driver panics as soon as she sees the blood on both of their shirts when Noel starts hauling him into the backseat, but, to her credit, floors it without asking too many questions. Noel somehow gets the feeling she’s seen worse, judging by the the way she shouts at him to apply pressure to the wound. He gives her a five-star rating and the wrinkled up fifty dollar bill he found that's been floating around in his wallet. He only notices the faint traces of white dust on it (great, mark that area down as coke and stab avenue in the mental GPS system) as he throws it to the front of the car, dragging stab-wound fuckboy, who is propped up on his shoulder, out of the backseat. It’s not long before hospital staff are helping him carry the man inside and laying him on a gurney, telling Noel to sit in the waiting room.

He does.

* * *

 

He can’t really tell how much time it took to go from his casual depression walk to now, where he’s anxiously waiting in a hospital waiting room for a dude he doesn’t even know the name of, but it feels like probably ten minutes or maybe an hour. He unlocks his phone absently, jittering a leg up and down. He Googles what happens when you bring a stranger to the hospital. He doesn’t get anything remotely helpful, and after trying a few different phrases, he settles on clickbait about fifty things hospitals apparently aren’t telling him, both to pass the time and as a vain attempt to garner any kind of useful information. The reading doesn't go well, as he gets distracted every time a nurse opens a door, looking up expectantly, waiting for someone to come out and tell him this random dude bled out and he should probably just leave, maybe the police will contact him for some testimony, he’ll probably be a suspect, whatever. In all honesty, he _wants_ to leave. It smells like antiseptic and sick people and he wants to go home. He probably could just walk out-- no one asked for his name, they just shuttled Stab-Bro (as Noel had inwardly taken to calling him) through some heavy doors and said he couldn’t follow. He did his part. Stab-Bro was probably fine. He could leave and never think about it again.

Noel sighs heavily, because of course he can’t just leave. There’s a dude who he may or may not have saved the life of in there; the least he could do is stick around to let him say thanks. Maybe Stab-Bro is rich and he’ll get a reward. A gift basket or something. Maybe just cash. Cash would be cool. Noel knows nothing about this dude other than 1. He was unlucky enough to get mugged _and_ stabbed, and 2. He’s sort of attractive in an Instagram kind of way. If he’s not rich, Stab-Bro probably has mad followers on social media at the very least. Maybe he’ll get a promo. He laughs to himself. Save a man’s life and get rewarded with a shoutout on Twitter. It seems like the exact kind of shit that would happen to him.

Another nurse passes him without a glance, and he sighs again, stretches, and slumps back in his chair. He’s been through a lot in the past hour or so. He probably deserves a nap. Being anxious for the life of a dude you don’t know is tiring work. Maybe Stab-Bro will take him out for drinks or something after they bandage the wound. He closes his eyes.  ...Or they can kick back with some hospital cafeteria chicken nuggets. Whichever comes first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again, major props to elonpleasefuckmywife for the idea.


	2. Partner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey! told you id update this.

“Sir?” Noel hears, and it stirs him from a not-quite sleep. He snaps opens his eyes, looks at the nurse standing in front of him. “Are you the one who brought in Mr.…” She pauses. “Ko… Kolod…” Her eyebrows knit together. _“...Cody?”_

“Uh. Maybe?” Noel says helpfully. “Sorry, did he get stabbed?”

“Yes; Are you his friend?”

Noel pauses to consider this. Would they let him in the room if he was a stranger? Should he lie? They _definitely_ won’t buy that they’re brothers. Step-brothers? The last thing he needs is to be caught in a lie.

“He’s my, uh…” Noel presses his lips into a thin line. “... _Partner?”_ Good. Vague. It doesn’t have to mean boyfriend, though that’ll certainly help him get to visit the guy. Maybe they’re buddy cops. Maybe they do doubles in tennis. Stab-Bro looks like he might play tennis.

“Ah, okay! Right this way, Ah…”

“Nole,” Noel provides. Can never be too careful. Plausible deniability. Maybe she misheard him. He didn’t lie, but if he’s about to get into some shit, that's not… Well, it's not... _Not kinda_ his name. Noel realizes at that moment that anxiety makes some wack decisions.

“Mr… Um. Your partner is in room 168,” She says, leading him through the hallways.

They reach the doorway after a small while, and he walks in and sees Stab-Bro laying on the hospital bed, hooked up to some shit with a clip on his index finger.

“Sir?” The nurse defaults to. He looks up at her, then to Noel. “Your partner is here to see you.”

“Hey,” Stab-Bro says weakly.

“Hey,” Noel returns.

Noel stands awkwardly by the door.

“I’ll leave you two for a moment; If you need anything, don’t hesitate to press the call button,” she smiles, leaving the room.

“So uh… Partner?” Stab-Bro asks.

“Shit, I um, didn’t know if they’d let me in if I was just some random dude? So I sorta just…” Noel makes an indecisive noise. “Not _lied,_ but… ‘Partner’ is vague enough, I figured that shit’ll work. I was kind of on the spot.” Noel hopes Stab-Bro isn’t a homophobe, which is something he hadn't considered before that moment. Luckily, Stab-Bro laughs.

“I see,” he quirks his brow with a smile. “Well uh, thanks for saving my life, I guess,” He chuckles, then winces. “So what’s… What’s your name?” Ah. Noel thinks about saying ‘Nole’ again for a split second, but decides against it. Being saved after you got stabbed creates a mutual sense of trust. Probably.

“Noel.” He reaches out his hand.

“I’m Cody,” says Stab-Bro, and Noel takes a moment to mourn the now obsolete nickname as Cody shakes his hand.

“So,” Noel looks at him. “How did you get stabbed?”

Smooth.

Cody huffs out a laugh. “I was walking to the closest Byrd on the app, so I was looking down at my phone, and a dude in a hoodie passed me and was all ‘buh give me your wallet’ and flashed a knife at me, so I reach into my pocket to pull it out and he must’ve thought I was getting a weapon or some shit, because he stabs me in the side, picks up my wallet _and my phone,_ and runs off,” Cody rants. Noel is impressed by the level of fake blasè humor Cody can put on this story about getting fucking stabbed. “And then you showed up and called an Uber. Which I appreciate, by the way. Fuckin’ sucks that you gotta pay for your own god damn ambulance.”

“Yeah, well, if it were me who got got, I would’ve wanted a Lyft, but beggars can’t be choosers.” Cody laughs at his joke, and it seems like he’s trying not to so as to avoid putting strain on the wound. “Ah. Sorry, man, I’ll try to stop being funny for now. Put a lid on the routine.”

“Honestly I can’t tell if I’d rather avoid laughing or just deal with it. It’s like a catch twenty-two. If I don’t laugh, that sucks, because laughter is dope, but if I do laugh, my new hole hurts.”

“Aw, man, what?” Noel screws his eyebrows together. “Don’t call that shit your ‘new hole,’ it’s a stab wound, not a vaginoplasty.” Cody laughs uproariously at that, and he tears up both from how hard he’s laughing and the pain that it results in. “Fuck, I did it again!” Noel shouts quietly in mock anger. “I’M CURSED WITH BEING FUNNY, FUCK!”

“Jesus, fuck, dude, oh god, it hurts,” Cody continues giggling, holding his side. “Fuck, how do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“It’s like every word out of your mouth is fucking hilarious!”

Noel clicks his tongue, shrugging his shoulders and smirking. “Look, sometimes when a brother gets stabbed you gotta come in clutch with that comedic relief. My brain is hardwired to seek out those in need of pissing themselves laughing.”

“Well you’re pretty damn good at it,” Cody reiterates. They stare at each other, smiling, before the same nurse from before pokes her head into the room.

“Hi, me again. I just wanted to let you know that visiting hours are over at nine tonight, but you’re welcome to visit again tomorrow morning at seven.”

“Thanks,” Noel replies, and she gives a nod before leaving again.

“Fuck.” He hears from beside him. Cody looks upset. Noel hopes the guy isn’t afraid of staying here alone or something. He’s seen people stay in hospital rooms overnight on TV, but he doesn’t know how that shit works in the real world. And putting that aside, would he really be willing to stay there all night for a dude he just met today?

“What’s up?” Noel settles on.

“I just went to check the time, and my watch is gone, too. Man, fuck. I liked that watch.”

“Bummer.”

“And what the hell am I gonna do now? sit in bed without a phone for however long I have to stay here? I don’t know if this shitty TV is gonna be enough to prevent me from dying of fucking boredom.”

Noel thinks for a minute. He’s about to say something about how at least he wouldn’t be bored during visiting hours, but quickly realizes that maybe Cody doesn’t expect, or for that matter, even _want_ some random guy visiting him in the hospital, even if Noel had saved his life. His eyebrows twitch together as he makes a split second decision to grab this situation by the balls.

“You won’t be bored during visiting hours, at least,” he says as confidently as possible. Cody’s face lights up, thank god, and he looks up at Noel from his unadorned wrist.

“You’d do that? Like, just visit this random dude who bled all over you?”

“Bro, if I’m honest, I don’t have much else to do. I work from home, I don’t have any plans for the next however long, I might as well hang out with my new stab-buddy.”

“Damn. You’re a really nice guy,” Cody says earnestly. Noel feels something in his gut twitch. Probably gas. Probably.

“I’m just as surprised you want a random dude who you bled all over to keep visiting you. Didn’t they give you your one phone call?”

Cody chuckles. “Yeah, I called my parents, but they’re up in Canada, and I downplayed the injury a lot, just sorta let them know I don’t have my phone so I won’t be in constant contact. I thought about calling a few friends but I didn’t wanna worry them, y’know?”

“Makes sense.” Noel looks at his own phone. 8:00 PM. Cody yawns. “You must be tired.”

“Yeah. I actually am hella tired,” he yawns again.

“Alright, then. I’ll head out and let you sleep,” Noel nods.

“Yeah, man. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. See you tomorrow.” He heads toward the door. “Later.”

“Hey, uh, Noel?”

“Yeah, man?” Noel turns back, and Cody is quiet for a second before responding. Noel can’t tell if he’s sleepy or nervous.

“Thanks for uh, for saving me. Like, my life I mean.”

Noel can’t help but crack a smile at the absurdity of it all. “No problem. See ya at seven, Cody.”

“Yeah.”

Noel waves loosely, and exits the hospital room. He notices how fast his heart is beating, and instead of dwelling on it, he flags down a nurse to ask how to get out of this damn maze of a building that he’ll be coming back to in the morning.

He takes another Uber home, both slightly wary of walking home alone and too tired to even do so. During the ride, he takes out his phone and sets an alarm for 6 AM.

He also makes a note to ask what Cody’s last name is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> note: this fic is not sponsored by Uber, Lyft, or Byrd. Nor is it sponsored by getting yourself stabbed in order to meet your soulmate. It _is,_ however, sponsored by the chicken patties they serve for hospital food. i can say from experience that them shits are pretty good after being strapped to a gurney in the back of an ambulance for an hour. 
> 
> anyway, you know the drill...  
> tumblr: vinnoel  
> dreamwidth: scotticus


	3. Maple Syrup

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhhhhhhhh so yeah this is an AU in which Vine shut down way earlier than it did in our universe, Cody never made Vines, and neither of them are established youtubers/internet-famous, except the Skinny Penis vine is still a classique. 
> 
> enjoy.

Noel wakes up at 6:15 after dutifully hitting the snooze on his alarm only once, and actually sort of worries about what clothes to wear for the first time in a long while.

* * *

“Mr. Kolodziejzyk?” The nurse in front of Noel says, and Noel is taken aback at the long last name, cursing his inability to immediately commit it to memory. “There’s someone here to see you.”

Cody looks up like a preeteen girl looks up at her favorite magcon boy. It cements for Noel the fact that he’s in deep shit. He walks in as Cody shoots him a “Hey, man!” and the nurse nods politely, walking away.

“Hey,” Noel says. “How did you sleep?”

“Great,” Cody says sarcastically. “For sure, dude, I slept awesome on a lumpy hospital bed with a wound in my side.”

“No shit? Well I’m glad you were able to get a good night’s rest.”

“Oh, for sure,” Cody repeats, reaching for his bedside table. He uncaps a small bottle of orange juice that sat next to a tray of breakfast food and takes a swig.

“They hooked you up with OJ?” Noel observes idly, and Cody looks like he’s about to say something, but shakes his head and smiles to himself instead. “Man…” Noel starts again cautiously, “ _ Please _ tell me you were  _ not  _ just about to make an OJ Simpson joke.”

“I don’t know if I can lie to you like that,” Cody chuckles.

Noel clicks his tongue, rolling his eyes. “That’s some low level shit, man,” he chides, but his eyes are still smiling.

“That’s why I didn’t say it!” Cody insists.

“Yeah, but, like, you  _ thought  _ of it. That’s bad enough.”

“Whatever, man,” Cody reaches to his side table again. “You’re just mad because I have–  _ hoogh– _ ” he cuts himself off with a small grunt as he reaches for the tray itself, wincing.”–A cute little mini-...bottle of…” Noel gets up, grabbing the tray and setting it on Cody’s lap. “...Juice. Thanks,” Cody finishes.

Noel moves his hands carefully so as not to touch him as he puts the tray down. He manages to not touch Cody’s legs, but he shifts under the tray and brushes his fingers against Noel’s. 

“Thanks,” Cody says again.

“No problem, man.”

With the tray now on his lap, Cody pops the flimsy plastic cover off a cup of yogurt on his tray. Noel preemptively reaches for the spoon left on the side table, and passes it to him. Cody grabs it, and their fingers brush again. Fuck. 

Noel feels like he might be blushing, but he also thinks it might be his fuckup brain playing tricks on him again. He does his best to ignore the heat rising in his cheeks and hopes his ambiguously tan complexion hides any possible flush.

“Hey,” Cody says, looking up from his yogurt parfait, “Before you said you work from home, right? What do you do?”

“IT shit. Every once in a while I’ll build custom PCs.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. Why?” Noel asks casually.

“Just curious,” Cody shrugs, putting a spoonful of oats and yogurt into his mouth.

“What do you do?”

“Um,” Cody swallows, “Well, I do some programming stuff for this company that sponsors YouTubers and shit.”

“Cool.”

“Yeah,” Cody pokes at his yogurt.

“Do you do any YouTube shit?” Noel asks.

“Um, nah, not really. I thought about doing like, comedy sketches but with how the site runs now I don’t think I’d be able to do so great.”

“I bet you could, though.”

“No, there’s no room for smaller people; you gotta be either really lucky or already have connections in order to get anywhere. Especially with sketch comedy,” Cody takes another spoonful, and is about to put it in his mouth, but stops abruptly, jabbing the spoon back into the yogurt. “Hold on a fucking second.”

Noel bobs his head questioningly. “What?”

“You’re the fucking skinny penis guy!”

Noel closes his eyes, slapping a hand across his face. “God damn it. Yes, I’m the skinny penis guy. You got me.”

“Oh, fuck, I  _ knew  _ you looked familiar! I always wanted to do Vines too but, like, I never felt like they were good enough to post. They all just ended up as Snapchats to my friends,” Cody smiles almost wistfully, bringing the spoon back to his mouth.”

“Yeah, well…” Noel rubs the back of his neck. “Skinny penis didn’t exactly get me anywhere, man. Vine was dead in the water before I got any real traction, so hopefully FazeClan_Noscope_Gamer_420 orders another desktop from me once he breaks his current rig in a fit of Gamer Rage after getting headshotted six times in a row,” Noel says, weaving the lore of his theoretical client. Cody, meanwhile, has been laughing progressively harder for the whole last third of his statement. Noel decides he likes Cody’s laugh, so he mimes someone smashing a computer, screaming quietly. 

“Fuck,  _ fuck,”  _ Cody gasps, clutching his side, “Oh god, it hurts,” he moans, still laughing. “Noel, man, you  _ gotta _ stop doing that shit!” Noel forcefully suppresses himself from beaming with satisfaction at Cody’s continuing giggles. “God damn,” Cody huffs, “Fucking stab victim here, just trying to eat my fucking parfait–”

“–Everybody loves parfait,” Noel offers quietly, not looking at Cody.

Cody stares at him, mouth agape “ _ Really _ , dude? You’re gonna rag on me for  _ thinking _ an OJ Simpson joke,” He pauses to gesture at Noel with his spoon, “And then  _ you _ go and make a  _ Shrek _ reference? Come  _ on _ , bro,” Cody challenges, leaning back for emphasis a little too quickly and making a face at the returning pain in his side. 

“Hey, man,  _ Shrek _ is always fair game for referencing.”

“Uh, yeah, maybe if you still call things ‘epic’, too.”

“Woah! Maybe I  _ do  _ still call things epic! You tryna start something, bro?”

“Look,” Cody raises his palms, “All I’m saying is the last time I heard a  _ Shrek  _ reference, it was immediately followed up by intense flossing.”

“Cold. That’s cold. Forget your fuckin’ long-ass keysmash name, just go with Cody fuckin’  _ Kold _ .”

“One, am I using ‘Fuckin’’ as a middle name, or was that just for emphasis, and two, don’t fucking diss the Kolodziejzyk bloodline just because you got stuck with  _ Miller.  _ Sounds like a goddamn real estate agent’s name.”

Noel laughs uproariously at this, and Cody looks a little too proud.

“Fuck, man,” Noel says, “I don’t even got a comeback for that,” he admits, and Cody fills his mouth with more yogurt. The patient formerly known as Stab-Bro is quickly and continually worming himself deeper and deeper into Noel’s  _ list of people he very much enjoys doing improv with _ .

Unfortunately, he’s also worming his way into his  _ list of people he would like to have sex with _ . 

Noel hasn’t decided if this is a problem yet, but he's leaning toward  _ yes _ . A lot of things about Cody are leaning towards being problems, and most of these things, Noel figures, haven’t happened yet, and will proceed to happen at the worst possible moment.

He watches Cody eat another spoonful of yogurt and then go for the prepackaged pancakes on his tray. Noel isn’t sure why he turns his head to look away when Cody resorts to tearing the package open with his teeth. He doesn’t want to think about it.

They sit in companionable silence for a little bit as Cody gets syrup on his face trying to stuff a whole pancake in his mouth. Noel has a thought that immediately makes him want to punch himself and also maybe a maple tree, but Cody offers him half a pancake before Noel can raise a fist and give himself a concussion. Pancake in hand, his brain is chill again, and he’s unsure how he feels about the fact that it’s Cody that has this effect rather than the pancake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why is this fandom so fucking chill???? this is the biggest amount of positive feedback ive gotten in such a short amount of time on like any of my shit ever. i love you guys. 
> 
> shoutout to my tiny meat gays, and happy pride month.  
> TMG gave me my muthafuckin' lesbian rights ✊😔
> 
> tumblr: vinnoel  
> dreamwidth: scotticus  
> XBOX Live: FazeClan_Noscope_Gamer_420


End file.
